hiking and church....two new best friends!

[kfollo]

What does hiking have to do with Church? A whole lot more today than last week thats for sure. I went to Bruce's house after work and we went for a walk. Around the large block of wooster middle school. Soo no problem here's how the rest went down

Comments

[kfollo]

Well...thats a whole lot...yea he always tells me "don't think about the exercise of walking...think about sometihng else...and its not that bad.." So I will definitely try to focus on nature...

...as far as actually going to Church goes....I have made it quite clear over and over again that he does not have to go if he doesn't want to and that I don't want him to feel like he has to go just for me. He doesn't come every week cause he works on Sundays and usually gets out too late to come to the 6pm Mass..but on the occasion that he has a sunday off, and I'm feeling courageious...I'll ask him if he wants to come.

Last week, he was at a picnic with two of our friends that were leaving the picnic to come to church and I was on my way down to church from my family picnic and I texted him "wanna just come to church with jason and catie?" and he said "ok i'll come"

And whenever he or someone else mentions the idea of me "making" or "forcing" him to go to Church I quickly reassure them that it is his choice to come or not. And I'm very sincere in that. I tried to make Matt into a lot of things he wasn't, and I refuse to make that mistake again....

...on the flip side...he went to a funeral once by himself and was telling me that hemissed communion...he seemed really ticked off too...I think that him receiving the Eucharist is God's only real true connection wiht him, and that he's an adoration devotion waiting to happen...in God's time and in Bruce's time, if that is God's will.

I just pray that his desire to receive communiuon at mass will grow.

The other thing is, he said to me abotu hiking:
"just don't think about the exercise or bugs and it won't be so bad" ....I think I'm going to tell him that in response to that, Church wouldn't be so boring if he learned more about the mass and participated more....i think its a very fair trade. It's amazing ot me that he is probably going to teach me how to find God in nature (without knowing it) and I'm going try to help him find God in the Church!

[angilla]

I'm just curious - did he ever say "no" when you asked him to come to church with you? And did he ever take the first step and ask you if he could come?

I know you're not trying to make or force him to go, I don't think you'd do that. But I'm trying to see how it comes across on his side, in man language. Men are so weird in the way they interpret things that we say sometimes. We can be SO CLEAR on how we say something... and it just... somehow loses its clarity on the way from their ears to their brains, haha. Nah, that's mean and I'm just kidding. It's just that we're wired differently, is all.

[kfollo]

he has said no...more times than he actually comes. when he's tired...or when I assume he just really doiesn't want to come. I only ask very seldomly...and our mutual friend jason is the one who has asked him to come on the major holidays and he said ok to him...even though he knew ahead of time that he'd be there for a while. I make it a point to not ask him to come a lot because I know he's not a big church fan...but once in a blue, if he's not working and I'm going to Mass in his town....then I'll see if he wants to come.

[angilla]

That's cool. :) So then *confused*... what's up with the "you make me go to church" comment? He has no reason to feel like you make him go. 0.o

[kfollo]

yea...I think he was just searching for a reason for me to keep walking in the woods yesterday!! ;)
I think he partially gets a kick out of me and my sorry attempts at being outdoorsy...

[angilla]

Haha that's cute... oh noeesss I said the word cute! :P LOL. Have either of you ever tried horseback riding?

[kfollo]

no offense if you like horses or horseback riding, but the one farm animal smell I can not deal with is horses. I've never really loved them enough to put up with the smell...I love cows....don't ask...but yea i'll hike for days and weeks if i could avoid riding a horse! haha.

Cute? see....its sooo easy to call him cute...i think that work and him are meant to be! :)

And I think I just made his day...I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk again today...its rainy out so I said no woods, but I said I'd walk longer than yesterday. as long as it stops raining and he doesn't have to work late. he was like you want to walk again wow!

and at the very least...if he's going to church just to make me happy, then I'll hike just to make him happy! and maybe in our acts of sacrifice for one another, something good will come!